Scarlett White (40 page)

"WHAT!" Ginny bellowed into her phone.

"She doesn't remember a thing. She didn't even remember her name when she woke up," Chloe said on the opposite end of the phone.

Ginny paced around her room with a concerned look on her face as she brought her hand up to rub her forehead in thought. Her black hair fell over her shoulders in tangled disarray. "How did it happen?"

"She was beat up."

"Why?"

"Nobody knows. Nobody even knows who did it to her. She was found unconscious on the floor in the middle of school," Chloe explained.

"But who would do such a thing to her? She has never done anything bad to anyone," Ginny said.

"I know. She's practically an angel, compared to the rest of the students at our school."

"She's still coming down here during Christmas break, right?"

"I don't know," Chloe said slowly. "I'm not sure her stepfather will like the idea now that she has amnesia."

"Damn it," Ginny swore.

Ginny missed Scarlett. She wanted to see her again. It had been almost one month and a half since she had last seen her best friend. And Tristan needed her. Ginny just knew that if Scarlett came home for only a little while, Tristan would wake up. She didn't know how, but she just knew he would wake up.

"She needs to come home," Ginny said, sounding defeated as if she already knew she was fighting a losing battle.

"I mean, if we could convince Melody of thinking it's a good idea for Scarlett to come home, then it would be a straight shot from there," Chloe said.

"Melody?" Ginny asked.

"She's Scarlett's stepsister, and Melody gets anything she wants with just one bat of her eyes," Chloe elucidated.

"Perfect. But, wait a second, why exactly do you want her to come down here? Are you trying to get rid of her or something?" Ginny asked suspiciously.

"Not at all. Scarlett is like my fourth sister. But, honestly, I think that if Scarlett goes back to the place where she grew up, something might spark her memory. If she sees her old friends, her old school, her old classmates, maybe even her old home if it's still on the market, it might help her remember," Chloe replied.

"Good point. Maybe you could use that to convince Melody to talk to her father," Ginny said.

"I will. I'll talk to her today actually. I think she's coming by the hospital to visit Scarlett in a few hours. Okay, well, I gotta go. Talk to you later," Chloe said and hung up Scarlett's phone.

"Hey, Chloe, I think she is remembering some things," Zoey said from the seat beside the hospital bed where Scarlett was sitting up in.

Scarlett was still in her cast, which had been signed by as many people who could squeeze their names on to it as possible. Chloe, Zoey, and Millie had been the first to sign it. Christian had been the fourth. Christian had come to visit Scarlett about three or four times a week after school. He felt miserable for leaving Scarlett by herself in that lonely hallway. He felt awful for what had happened to Scarlett. And even though she couldn't remember anything about what had happened, Christian apologized multiple times for it. Christian hugged her as soon as she had opened her eyes two days after she was beat up with no memory whatsoever.

Christian had visited her so often that at one point Scarlett asked, "I'm sorry to be blunt, but are you my boyfriend?"

Christian's brown eyes snapped up to lock with her face. What he saw in her eyes was complete confusion and wonder. She couldn't remember a thing. She couldn't even remember the kiss. Christian's heart sped up a little bit. He almost gave her an affirmative answer, but he said, "No. We're just really good friends."

After that Christian began telling Scarlett everything he knew about her. And Chloe, Zoey, Millie, Melody, Timothy, and Rosa all helped with the rest. Scarlett had even held a long four-way phone conversation with Ginny, Kate, and Meghan. They told her everything about what had happened ever since they had known her. They even told her about what happened to her in eighth grade, her forgotten past. She learned about Charles and how he had accidentally killed her father and stepmother. Kate even told her about Francis and their short relationship. She was also told about Tristan though she had no recollection of him at all. They told her he was in a coma, and she had planned to come back to Florida to visit them during Christmas break. Scarlett also learned that she had been in the top two percent of her class at Watson High and the top five percent at Humphrey Day.

She had been overwhelmed at first, but as she learned more and more about herself, the more she felt like an outsider in her own life. How was it that she couldn't remember a single thing from her past? When she tried to recall some images from her life, she came up completely empty. All she could see was black emptiness when she closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as she could to remember anything from her existence.

Right now, Zoey and Millie were talking about shopping trips and movies they had gone to together, trying to jog Scarlett's memory. Chloe was standing in the corner of the room talking on Scarlett's cell phone to a girl named Ginny, who was one of Scarlett's best friends in Florida.

"Here you go. This is a picture of your real father," Millie said and handed Scarlett a photo of her dad.

She looked at the man in the photograph. He had green eyes, her eyes. He had black hair and tan skin. His pearly white teeth were shinning against his skin. He looked kind and sincere. And wealthy. The Ralph Lauren suit he was wearing proved the money he obtained. He also looked like a stranger. Scarlett had never seen him before in her entire life. Or, at least, not that she could recall.

Scarlett shook her head with a frown.

"Well, here, let's show her the yearbook from last year," Zoey suggested. "Maybe she'll recognize someone."

Scarlett flipped through the pages slowly, making sure to look at every individual with a scrutinizing eye. Finally she flipped the page to one hundred and seventy-two, and there was one boy on the page who caught her eyes. She stared at the photo for a long, long time with her eyes squinted in concentration. She had seen him somewhere. But where? She stared into the boy who had shoulder-length dark hair and menacing black eyes that seemed to be bottomless pits of darkness.

"Hey, Chloe, I think she is remembering some things," Zoey said as she watched Scarlett's facial expression change.

"Austin?" Scarlett asked, reading the name below the picture.

"Yes, Austin Barking. He's a bully," Chloe said as she came to sit beside Scarlett.

"I think Christian mentioned that name before. He said that Austin was bothering me when we first met. Christian had helped me out that day. He had saved me from this Austin," Scarlett said, still staring at the picture. "But he didn't describe him before. I know him from somewhere. I've seen him."

"That's good," Millie said. "That's really good. Maybe you're beginning to remember things."

"In a hallway? A quiet hallway. Sort of dark, maybe?"

"Yes, you were in the corridor by the gymnasium. You had been there for hours, so it was probably dark because no one usually goes there until the afternoon," Zoey said.

"There are three figures. Tall and menacing. They remind me of the mob…a gang of some sort?"

"Yes, Austin is the ringleader, and his two buddies are his minions. And they think of themselves as a gang," Chloe said with a smile. "Keep going."

"That's it. That's all I can see. Thinking of them…it makes my head hurt." Scarlett brought her unbroken arm up to her head and tried to gently massage it.

"That's okay. You should rest."

"Wait…no, it doesn't hurt because I'm thinking too much; it hurts because I'm remembering. They hit me. Slapped me? It hurt my head. I had done something to upset them. I had called them a name? No, I had run into them. I had run into him. Austin. And that was what Christian had told me. He had saved me from Austin on my first day of school because I had run into him; that was what Christian said to me. Maybe I ran into him again? I was going somewhere. A bell?"

"Yes, the morning bell, signaling homeroom," Millie helped. "Was that where you were going? To homeroom?"

"I…I'm not sure. Maybe. I think so. It's really fuzzy, like a dream I can't remember."

"That's okay. You're doing really good," Zoey said.

"Well. I'm doing really
well
," Scarlett said without thinking.

Chloe's eyebrows shot up. "At least she remembers proper grammar. That has to be a plus."

Just then, the door opened to reveal a soaked blonde.

"Hey, Chris," Zoey said nonchalantly, used to his presence.

"Hi, Christian," Millie said quietly, averting her eyes.

Chloe simply smiled a knowing smile on her lips.

"Hey," Christian said. "It's pouring outside."

Scarlett smiled, looking at his wet form up and down, "I grasped that."

"How are you feeling?" Christian asked, his eyes clouded with self-blame as he looked at the bruises and scars all over her face and arms.

"Better. I can almost remember something."

"Really?" Christian's eyes lit up with enthusiasm. "What?"

"I remember a boy named Austin. I remember the two guys from his…gang? I remember pain. And—" Scarlett gasped.

"What?" Chloe, Zoey, and Millie asked in unison.

"You were there," Scarlett said, looking at Christian. "We had been talking. For some reason, I remember feeling nervous and relieved. What had we been talking about?"

"Uh…we…" Christian glanced at the three girls sitting around Scarlett.

Zoey smiled deviously. "We already know, Christian. You kissed her."

Christian cleared his throat. "We had been talking about how the kiss didn't matter because you have a boyfriend. And I think you were relieved to get that infidelity off your chest."

"Oh. We kissed?"

"Yeah. It was a mistake though. We were lonely and hormonal. You missed Tristan and wanted someone to confide in. Our emotions got mixed up, that's all."

"Okay," Scarlett replied, making a confused expression on her face as her heart started pumping hard and fast for some reason that she couldn't put her finger on.

Chloe looked from Christian to Scarlett and knew exactly why Scarlett was making that face, but she refused to speak her mind because she knew about Tristan, who was still in a coma. And it was then that she realized Ginny had been right. Scarlett really did need to visit Florida again. She needed to see her boyfriend. Who knew? Maybe it would strike a memory.

"I'm going to use your cell phone again, Scarlett," Chloe said, grabbing the phone and walking out of the room.

As soon as the door shut behind her, she searched through Scarlett's contacts and found the name she needed: Melody Harman. Chloe's heart pounded in her ears as she pressed the name. Melody was her idol. She looked up to Melody more than she looked up to her own mother. She couldn't put into words how much she thought of Melody. And she was about to talk to her.

"Hey, girl. How are you feeling?" Melody said as soon as she picked up the phone.

"Um…actually it's Chloe. Chloe Levine. I'm Scarlett's friend—"